What made your parents regret grounding you within a week? #redditstories #reddit #shorts #storytime — Transcript

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1. 0:00What made your parents regret grounding
2. 0:01you within a week? My parents grounded
3. 0:02me for a month because I kept sneaking
4. 0:04out of my room at 3:00 a.m. They were
5. 0:05convinced I had a secret boyfriend. What
6. 0:06I actually had was a reason to be
7. 0:08terrified. It started 3 weeks before
8. 0:09that. My little sister Nora is nine. Her
9. 0:11bedroom is on the ground floor, back
10. 0:13corner of the house, one window facing
11. 0:14straight into the woods. One night I got
12. 0:16up for water and saw someone standing at
13. 0:17the tree line, just standing, facing her
14. 0:18window. The second I flicked the kitchen
15. 0:20light on, he stepped back into the dark.
16. 0:21I told myself it was nothing, a
17. 0:23neighbor, a deer, my own tired eyes. Two
18. 0:25nights later, same spot, same time, I
19. 0:26saw the orange dot of a cigarette glow
20. 0:28and fade. Someone was standing in our
21. 0:30woods at 3:00 a.m. Watching a
22. 0:31nine-year-old's window. Remember that.
23. 0:32So, I started staying up. Every night
24. 0:34I'd creep downstairs, sit in the dark
25. 0:35kitchen, and watch the yard until the
26. 0:37sky turned gray. That was the sneaking
27. 0:38out my parents kept catching. They'd
28. 0:40hear me on the stairs at 4:00 a.m. and
29. 0:41assume I was coming home from somewhere.
30. 0:43When my mom finally cornered me, I told
31. 0:44her the truth, all of it. The man, the
32. 0:46cigarette, the window. She looked at me
33. 0:47like I'd grown a second head. There is
34. 0:49no one in our backyard, honey. Just tell
35. 0:50me his name. My dad was worse. You're
36. 0:5215. You think we don't know what
37. 0:53sneaking out at 3:00 a.m. means? I
38. 0:55begged them to put a camera on the back
39. 0:56of the house. They said cameras cost
40. 0:58money and I'd lost the right to ask for
41. 0:59anything. So, they grounded me, a full
42. 1:01month. They took my phone. And because
43. 1:02dad was so sure I'd keep sneaking
44. 1:04around, he did something that felt
45. 1:05insane at the time. He screwed a little
46. 1:06battery chime onto every exterior door,
47. 1:08the kind that beeps when a shop door
48. 1:09opens. Now I'll hear you, he said, like
49. 1:11he'd won. For 4 days I was locked in my
50. 1:13room with no phone, no way to watch the
51. 1:14yard, no way to call anyone if I saw him
52. 1:15again. I started to wonder if I'd
53. 1:17imagined the whole thing. Then Friday,
54. 1:18my parents went out for their
55. 1:19anniversary. First time they'd left the
56. 1:20house at night in weeks. Watch your
57. 1:22sister, mom said handing me $40 for
58. 1:23pizza. We trust you. The irony almost
59. 1:25made me laugh. Nora and I were on the
60. 1:26couch around 9:00 when I heard it, the
61. 1:27chime. One clean beat from the back of
62. 1:29the house, the door dad had wired with
63. 1:30that little alarm. I froze. Nora didn't
64. 1:32even look up from the TV. I told her to
65. 1:34go brush her teeth, keeping my voice
66. 1:35normal. She groaned, but went. The
67. 1:37second she was on the stairs, I heard
68. 1:38the back door click shut. Someone was
69. 1:39inside, in our kitchen, between me and
70. 1:41every exit. I didn't think. I took the
71. 1:43stairs two at a time, pushed Nora into
72. 1:44the upstairs bathroom, and locked the
73. 1:45door behind us. She started to ask what
74. 1:47was wrong, and I put my hand over her
75. 1:49mouth. Footsteps, slow ones, moving
76. 1:50through the house like they had all
77. 1:51night, like they knew exactly where her
78. 1:53bedroom was. My phone was gone, but mom
79. 1:54kept an old one in her nightstand for
80. 1:56emergencies. Wrong room, I couldn't
81. 1:58reach it, so I did the only thing left.
82. 1:59I turned the bathroom faucet on full
83. 2:00blast, whispered to Nora to stay in the
84. 2:02tub no matter what, and climbed out the
85. 2:03window onto the porch roof with the
86. 2:05cordless landline I'd grabbed from the
87. 2:06hall. I called 911 from the roof, flat
88. 2:08on my stomach, watching his flashlight
89. 2:10sweep across Nora's empty bedroom below
90. 2:11me. He stood in the middle of her room,
91. 2:13turning in a slow circle, and I will
92. 2:14never forget the sound he made when he
93. 2:16saw her bed was empty. This low,
94. 2:17frustrated exhale. The dispatcher kept
95. 2:19me on the line for minutes, the longest
96. 2:204 minutes of my life. Then red and blue
97. 2:22lit up the whole street, and he bolted
98. 2:23out the back straight into an officer
99. 2:25coming around the side. They found a
100. 2:26folder in his jacket, photos of Nora at
101. 2:28the bus stop, on the swing set, walking
102. 2:29home, dated over 6 weeks. He'd been
103. 2:31watching her long before I ever saw him
104. 2:32in those woods. My parents got home to
105. 2:34three police cars in the driveway. My
106. 2:35mom saw the officer holding that folder
107. 2:37and just sat down on the curb, couldn't
108. 2:38stand. My dad kept saying my name, then
109. 2:40Nora's, then mine again. Later, the
110. 2:42detective told them plainly that if
111. 2:43nobody had been watching that yard, this
112. 2:45would have ended very differently. My
113. 2:46dad looked at me across the kitchen, at
114. 2:48the chime still screwed to the door that
115. 2:49saved us, and his face just came apart.
116. 2:51Nobody ever finished the month. My phone
117. 2:52was back on my pillow by morning, and to
118. 2:54this day my dad cannot say the word
119. 2:55grounded without flinching.